Nguyen Thanh Phong, chairman of HCM City People's Committee, raised the concerns during the meeting with the city steering committee about Covid-19 prevention and control on February 25.

When being asked why the city authorities suggested letting students stay home for the whole of March, Phong said they had 2,000 schools with 1,000 to 2,000 pupils in each school. They would need three million face masks for everyone.

HCM City now has about 900 beds in the quarantine areas which would not be sufficient if there was an outbreak. Each confirmed patient requires 12 doctors and nurses.

He went on to say that they need to be careful when dealing with Covid-19 outbreak since HCM City has a large population and a huge number of foreign employees from China, South Korea and Japan.

"We may not be able to ensure the safety for everyone if nearly 2 million pupils return to school, studying and interacting in a confined environment," Phong said.

According to Le Hong Son, director of the Department of Education and Training, there are 1.7 million people in HCM City, not to mention 78,000 pupils at private group classes and 400,000 students at colleges and universities.

Since the schedule for the university entrance exam has been decided, they can't afford to let 12th graders to remain at home. The department has organised online classes and lessons on TV for 9th and 12th graders but this is just a temporary solution and not for everyone. Son suggested letting 9th and 12th graders return to school first on March 2 and they will only take morning or afternoon classes.

Pupils in other grades in secondary and high schools and the 5th graders will return to school on March 16. Foreign language centres and other education facilities would also be able to reopen on March 16.

HCM City has over 170,000 pupils in 9th and 12th grades and 8,000 teachers for those grades. Dtinews

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